This Week: 18 February 2013

The weather ... today was clear and sunny and at one point I even felt a tiny bit of warmth in the sun. The forecast is for temperatures to drop again tomorrow and to stay barely above freezing for the rest of the week. I am very ready for spring. 

I am wearing ... dark blue skinny jeans, pink and burgundy striped knitted tunic, pink hand knitted socks.

I am reading - The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, following up on the Richard III discovery a couple of weeks ago. I could have sworn this was a re-read, but it doesn't seem familiar so maybe I just thought I read it!

I am creating ... the same blue lacy socks. Just got to the heel of sock number two.

I am listening ... to the news on TV. Apparently there has been a huge diamond heist in Belgium.

I am watching ... Call the Midwife and nothing else that I can think of. 

I am enjoying ... a quiet evening. Both older girls are out and Rose is tucked up in bed. 

From the learning rooms ... Rose has been made a "free reader" at school, which means she gets to choose reading books from the school library instead of from colour-coded reading scheme books (these come from a number of different schemes and are banded by roughly equivalent level). She was particularly excited that she got shown how to use the bar code reader to check books out for herself. 

On the menu ... it is half term, so menu planning is a bit hit and miss and the plan is likely to evolve.
Monday - baked chicken breasts, potato croquettes, green beans
Tuesday - chicken in breadcrumbs, chips from the chip van, peas
Wednesday - pasta bake (ready meal as no time to cook)
Thursday - casserole made with frozen turkey leftovers from Christmas?
Friday - vegetarian cottage pie
Saturday - baked potatoes
Sunday - roast beef, roast potatoes and veggies

On the calendar ... 
Monday - work for me, meeting in London for Tevye, half term holiday from school for the girls all week
Tuesday - medical appointment for Marie in the morning;  Rose's not-so-little-anymore friend N and his mum came for dinner. We don't see them as often as we used to due to busy lives, but it is lovely to see how Rose and N still have a special bond and slot back quickly into imaginative play mode. 
Wednesday - I am taking Rose to London to visit the Science Museum, which she loves. She also wants to go and see Big Ben and the London Eye. 
Thursday - orthodontist's appointment for Marie. Her braces broke. Again. 
Friday - work for me, hospital appointment in the afternoon for Tevye
Nothing on the calendar at the moment for the weekend.

A picture from last week ... or rather, a link to several. A very early collection of photographs of prisoners (they date from the 1860s) that we hold in our archive made the news and then went viral - the mugshots ended up being printed in several newspapers and one of the major TV companies came along to film a news article about them. 

This Week: 4th February 2013

The weather ... The snow melted, was replaced by unseasonably warm temperatures marred by wind and rain, and is now back to cool but dry.

I am wearing ... Black and white knitted fair isle dress (three sizes too large, but warm and cozy and just about still wearable, and about the only piece of pre-weight loss clothing I haven't yet thrown out), black cardigan, black tights, black shoe boots (the comfiest pair of heels I possess, which I can happily wear all day).

I am reading ... Kind of ground to a halt, but have lots of books stacking up on my Kindle and hope to get some reading in over the next week.

I am creating ... Blue lacy socks

I am listening ... To Mumford and Sons, Noah and the Whale, Handel's organ concerto No.13, and Freitas Branco symphony No,2, among other things.

I am watching ... Call the Midwife, Miranda.

I am enjoying ... The news that King Richard III's body has been positively identified after being found under a car park in Leicester last year (for American English speakers, you might like to know that Leicester is pronounced Lester)

From the learning rooms ... Rose has developed a liking for maths and has decided it is her favourite subject, along with science, Marie, on the other hand, is disliking it (despite having a maths brain) thanks to a personality clash with her teacher.

On the menu ... Playing it by ear this week

On the calendar ... Marie leaves for Bulgaria tomorrow, and Tevye and I are looking forward to a long weekend away on our own.

A picture (or two) from last week ...

A shiny sink. I'm very slowly dipping a toe back into FlyLady.

I had to come up with a Scottish dessert for our regular dinner evening with our neighbours. This is cranachan, made with cream, toasted oatmeal, honey, whisky and raspberries - except I cheated and used Bailey's Irish Cream (yes, I knwo that isn't Scottish!) as i don't like whisky.